Impressions & Experiences

Mallory Knox – Kasbah

During my exchange semester, I saw that a club – Kasbah, very close to where I lived at that time, offered live concerts from time to time. As I really enjoy and love live music I asked a friend if she also would be interested in seeing some of the acts. After a little research, we found a few bands we would like to see but haven’t known about before. One of those bands were Mallory Knox.

Mallory Knox is a British alternative rock band from Cambridge, founded in 2009. The band consists of the five members Mikey Chapman (vocals), Joe Savins (lead guitar), Sam Douglas (bass), Dave Rawling (drums) and James Gillett (rhythm guitar) who wanted to name the band after a dark edgy film character. They found a suitable character in the Quentin Tarantino film ‘Natural Born Killers’ – Mallory Knox – who is a female mass murder and psychopath, taking out people she doesn’t like together with her boyfriend Mickey. Before choosing this character, they actually wanted to go for ‘Dorian Grey’ but didn’t choose the name as there came a cheesy Hollywood Movie at the same time.

Between their formation in 2009 and 2010 they wrote songs for their first EP called ‘Pilots’ which is a mostly alternative rock album but also consists of softer and harder styles. They mix heavy and strong choruses with soft sections that bring true and honest emotions without being too theatrical. The debut album ‘Signals’ was written, recorded and released between 2012 and early 2013. The sound was a little different but still Mallory Knox regarding the guitar and vocal styles. It developed alongside the musical preferences of the band members. It reached a peak position of 33 in the UK Album Charts 2013. The latest album – Asymmetry – was released in 2014 and reached a peak position of 16 in the UK Album Charts 2014 in the first week. With this album the lyrics were more direct than for the previous ones, mainly focusing on loss and love. After releasing ‘Ghost in the Mirror’ and ‘Shout at the Moon’ as the first singles of this album the band planned a headlining tour through the UK with Frank Lero, Fort Hope and Moose Blood as supporting acts. One of the concerts of this tour was at Kasbah in Coventry which I luckily went to.

Kasbah a small and a bigger room for concerts. The bigger room, where Mallory Knox played in fits maybe around 1000 – 1500 people and was extremely full that evening. The queue outside went around the corner of the street which unfortunately was the reason for me missing nearly all of the first supporting act Moose Blood which was quite sad as I liked their songs, listening to them previous to the show. The next band was Fort Hope which I had not heard about before but absolutely fell in love with after their show! I think they are an extremely talented and gifted alternative rock band, also from the UK, who mix light post-hardcore influences with rock and soft passages. The voice of the singer is really unique and has a huge range. The crowd also seemed to like them and started jumping moshing and clapping along.

Fort Hope as supporting act at Kasbah

The next act that came on the stage was Frank Iero, an American rhythm guitarist and vocalist mainly known as member of the US rock band My Chemical Romance. The new songs were produced and recorded by him after My Chemical Romance broke up in 2013. Only the drums were handled by the former drummer colleague. For live gigs a touring band was assembled and some tour dates including a co-headlining US tour with The Used were announced. Their first overseas run was an opener for Mallory Knox in the UK. Their punk and alternative rock sounds caught the crowd that grew with every supporting act.

Frank Lero as supporting act at Kasbah

After a great energetic gig of Frank Iero the main act – Mallory Knox – finally came on stage and they got the crowd with the first guitar riff they played. Everyone jumped, moshed, clapped and sang along. It was a really great show, not only regarding the stunning performance, but also because of the professional acoustic, technical support and lighting, which in general was not very fancy but suited perfectly to the performance without catching too much attention and taking away the focus from the bands performance.

Mallory Knox as main act at Kasbah

Mikey Chapman and Joe Savins

Mallory Knox at Kasbah

Great light creating a chilling atmosphere

After hearing the music of Fort Hope and Mallory Knox previously to the show I already found two more bands that I absolutely love which was further strengthened after their live performances! Hence, as I heard that Mallory Knox would be performing at Rock am Ring 2015, I knew that I’ll definitely would go to their gig there as well which was even better. The light show and acoustic was very good and the crowd sang along, jumped, moshed and clapped from the first second they started playing. It was an awesome feeling being part of the crowd and definitely a special time! Both of the time the band interacted with the crowd and animated them successfully to engage. They seemed to have a lot of fun themselves performing and were very energetic.

Mallory Knox in the Alternatent at Rock am Ring in Germany

Mallory Knox at Rock am RingMallory Knox at Rock am Ring

Mallory Knox animating the crowd at Rock am Ring

Mallory Knox having fun at Rock am Ring

Mallory Knox enjoying the show

Mikey Chapman listening to the crowd singing along, Sam Douglas at the bass and James Gillett at the guitar

Mikey Chapman and Joe Savins

Mikey Chapman and drummer Dave Rawling in the back at Rock am Ring in Germany